Prevalence of Tinnitus in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria:A 5-Year Retrospective Study

Noise exposure is one of the common causes of tinnitus the world over. In Nigeria, increase in prayer houses (churches and mosques), industrial machines, automobile and electricity generating sets have caused a sharp rise in environmental noise. To the best of my knowledge no existing data on the prevalence of tinnitus in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria and this study tends to provide one. Aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of tinnitus amongst patients attending the E.N.T Outpatient clinic of the Federal Medical Centre in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria.This is a hospital base retrospective study of patients seen in the Ear, Nose and Throat outpatient’s clinic of the Federal Medical Centre Lokoja, North Central Nigeria from January 2011 to December 2015 with the symptom of tinnitus. Patients’ demographic factors, aetiologic factors if any and treatment modality were extracted from the case files, studied and analyzed. Results presented in text and table format. Results showed that out of 2,184 patients seen 114 had tinnitus with a prevalence of 5.2%. The age range was 23-70 years with a mean age of 39.92 years and a modal age group of 31-40 (28.1%) years. Males were 60(52.6%) and females were 54(47.4%) giving a male to female ratio of 1.1: 1. Eighty eight patients (77.2%) had a known cause while 26 patients (22.8%) were idiopathic. Noise exposure (23.7%) was found to be the commonest cause of tinnitus, followed by ototoxicity (21.1%) and presbyacusis (19.3%). The prevalence of tinnitus in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria is low and the commonest aetiologic factor is noise induced sensorineural hearing loss. These data can be used for planning and funding of our health-care services.